Cold Temperatures Prompt Inmate Rebellion in Santa Cruz Jail

Anyone have any real reports from folks inside the jail?

The Sunday Sentinel has this "report":

"Masked inmates use booby traps in Santa Cruz County Jail skirmish"

Cops and Courts: Photos show unit littered and soaked after jail uprising. Sheriff's office is reviewing statements and surveillance in active investigation. Sentinel Staff Report

Investigators are reviewing surveillance video and statements before recommending charges ina wave of destruction by about 26 Santa Cruz County Jail inmates in Unit L this week, a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office spokesman said.

Photos of the property damage show the aftermath: the soaked red flower strewn with gray sleeping [sic], tattered sheets, and garbage.

Inmates complaining they were cold launched an offensive against jail staff on Tuesday afternoon, setting trip lines with ripped sheets, covering their bodies withmats, and extra clothing and their faces with masks, and throwing books and bottles of unknown liquids at officers--breaking a high-strength window int he process, Sgt. Brian Cleveland said.

The men were complaining it was cold int he unit and blankets were offered but declined, Cleveland said. Of the group, 24 of the men have returned to the west-wing cvells of L Unit. Two men are believed to have been the organizers, Cleveland said. The unit is a two-story pod with a common, or open, area with doors to cells along the periphery.

It took more than three hours for jail staff to clean the unit, Cleveland said. something had been thrown on the ceiling to cover up surveillance cameras, he said.

The cell blocvk is visible from a core viewing area staffed by guards. Mirrored tint on the windows makes it difficult for the inmates to see the guards. The inmates covered the window with sheets.

More than $1000 in property was destroyed.

Felonies likely will be recommended including assault with a deadly weapon, vandalism, and conspiracy, Cleveland said. No one has been arrested in connection with the disturbance.

Non-lethal sting balls, which eject rubber pellets, and bean-gag rounds were used to quell the resistance in less than 20 minutes."


MY COMMENTS:

The anonymous reporter ("Sentinel staff report") apparently didn't bother or try to interview any inmates or relatives of the inmates, so we get no understanding of what other than "the cold" prompted the rebellion. Even Cleveland's description makes the rebellion appear to be a defensive reaction to objectionable conditions.

Sheriff and Sentinel whitewashing is understandable and standard. What's worse (though also understandable) is all the psuedo-protest activity happening outside with MLK Day, Women's March, Trump-trounching, but no outcry against abuses in our own local jail.

Bold activists call for an end to solitary confinement statewide, but have no voice when it comes to local action where they might hold authorities directly accountable (and face more direct threat themselves).

Cries for justice and equal treatment for women ignore conditions in the local jail, but rage about Trump's language and racist militarist policies he's inherited from Obama, which Clinton would likely have continued and intensified. One-day marches carrying banners while abusive policies continue unchallenged locally are as delusional and a diversion. The real substance of the "protest marches" seems to be caught by videos of hundreds of people taking selfies of each other.

Nor have we any stats on any injuries prompted by the "non-lethal" weapons.

I post the Sentinel story, because it's no longer available unless you have a paid subscription.

If anyone has more information, as I requested before, please post it here. Or if anyone has the energy to file a Public Records Act demanding more specifics, that would be good as well.

Timidity in the face of institutional terror is understandable but unavailing.

Good for the prisoners working together to fight for their civil rights that were being violated. They did a good job keeping it nonviolent and to the point.

Shame on the jail for using temperature control to torture inmates. Not all inmates are guilty parties. i would like to remind Sentinel haters who made the sick comments, our justice system is still based on the belief, "Innocent until proven guilty."

The jail seriously needs to be investigated by the FBI and DOJ. This is only a small way they torture and mistreat inmates. The testimony I have heard from many victims is horrific. My brother and I have passed the abuses onto the federal government and media through channels because we were appalled and angry at the mistreatment that has been allowed to go for years!